Ignition
by venus42a6
Summary: Takes place immediately after Last One Out of Beach City. Our Repressed Nerd, Ultimate Wingman, and Voice of Reason are still out of gas and they still need to get home. Fortunately, they manage to sync up with Pearl's new friend one last time. Note: S has a bit of a potty mouth.


AN: Many thanks to F-ckthesystem125... apparently the formatting went really wonky before, rendering the story illegible, and I had no idea. I hope this fixes it...

The concert was nearly over, and Steven was clearly half asleep.

Without a second thought, Pearl picked him up in one arm, dragged away a hyped-up Amethyst in the other, and headed back for the Supremo. She made sure both were situated (seat belts on, of course) before taking the keys, turning them in the ignition, and—

Nothing.

Amethyst giggled. "Aw man, we like, totally forgot why we parked here in the first place! We'll just have to see if the hosts will let us couch-surf, then hitch back in the morning!"

"Amethyst, don't be ridiculous. That's entirely reckless and irresponsible. Hitchhiking in an unfamiliar town is unsafe."

"Says the lady who ran a red light, clocked 140, and ditched the cops on the way over!"

Pearl rolled her eyes, but also bit back a smile. "I was going 135, tops, and it's not like I haven't piloted ships that were flying far faster than human technology is capable of."

"P, you gotta show me some of those moves sometime. When we're not stranded, I mean."

"We are not stranded, Amethyst! I'll just have to call Greg on the phone I… don't… have." Pearl covered her face with her hand as she realized this fact. How could a night so quickly oscillate between perfect and ruined?

"Borrow mine, Pearl." Steven held his out and, after Pearl accepted it, tossed his head over the back of the bench and fell fast asleep.

She found Greg's number in the contacts and dialed.

One ring, two rings, three rings…

Nothing.

"I'll bet it's the reception," she declared as Amethyst eyed her skeptically. "Just let me step out for a minute and see if I can pick up a better signal."

She tried again.

And again.

And again…

"Gah!" Pearl groaned as she slumped against the hood of the Supremo and closed her eyes. Through the lids, she saw the flash of upcoming headlights, and Amethyst's suggestion of hitchhiking was beginning to sound attractive. She opened her eyes again.

No, wait, it was only one headlight. Like a train, or a motorcycle.

A motorcycle?

Pearl jumped up, hardly daring to believe it. There were plenty of motorcycles on the roads.

It couldn't be her, could it?

The bike slowed down, stopped. Its rider dismounted.

S.

"Ha. Looks like we meet again," S remarked, grinning. "I thought after I lost track of you, you must've left. Dude, is that a Supremo?"

"It is, as a matter of fact." Something stopped Pearl from mentioning that she had borrowed it, likely for the last time.

"Damn, if I had sweet wheels like that I'd be hanging around waiting for people to notice, too. But maybe come out from behind the sign, you blend in too much."

"That was the idea, actually."

"Ooh, mysterious."

"What is it you humans are fond of saying? 'It takes one to know one'?" Pearl swallowed her smile, her confidence withdrawn all of a sudden. Was that expression a compliment or an insult? It was meant to be playful, and truthful, because after all everything from S's hair to her name was still shrouded in mystery. And what about that metal cuff on her face? Was that indicative of an injury? Would it be rude to ask?

"So why are you here?"

Pearl snapped back to their conversation. "It seems we've run out of gasoline. It was far from our intent to venture so far from a gas station, but…"

"But this is Ocean Town." S laughed out loud. "Don't think I can blame anyone for not wanting to sell anything flammable around here, but hell if it's not a huge pain in the ass having to stock up so I don't get stranded myself. I swear the shed's gonna go up in flames one of these days. Rent's cheap, though."

"You live here?"

"About two miles away, yeah." S's face brightened. "I could take you to my stash. Give you enough to make it home, at least."

"That's… very thoughtful. But I have a human child in my custody who is in no condition to walk that far. Human children require so much sleep, you know."

"Totally. That's why you leave him here. I couldn't help but notice, and sorry if this seems nosy, but you seemed to be with someone… are you two… is she your…?"

"Babysitter? I suppose she could guard Steven as he slumbers." Two years ago, Pearl would've thought this an accident waiting to happen, but truth be told, these days Steven would likely have been fine even on his own.

S laughed. "So, you're not together."

"Not at this moment."

"Oh." S looked away. "Well… then hop on!"

"Hang on, I need to first inform Amethyst that I expect—" That was when Pearl noticed a violet-colored ear on the ground at their feet, attached to a very long shape-shifted hose.

From the front seat of the Supremo, Amethyst waved for Pearl to get going.

Pearl turned back to S. "I must admit, despite having learned to operate a motor vehicle, I'm not quite as familiar with other forms of human transit."

"It's easy. Just sit down and hang on!" S took Pearl by the hand and guided her to the back of the bike.

"Hang on to what?" Pearl didn't see handholds of any kind.

S grinned slyly. Instead of answering directly, she took both of Pearl's arms and guided them around her own waist. It was not an especially chilly night, yet Pearl felt her arms burn ferociously in comparison where they rested on the human woman's bare midriff. Her face felt warm, too, even after the bike roared to life and sped away into the night, sending pulses of air whipping past Pearl's blushing blue cheeks.

They didn't talk; the noise of the motorcycle and the highway rendered such impossible. It was just as well; Pearl could feel the weight of many questions she had no means of asking, had not even the vocabulary to phrase. But with every bump in the road, every sharp corner that forced her to hold on just a little more tightly, every whiff of some inexplicable floral scent in that supernaturally pink hair, she felt as though at least a few of them had been answered.

And then the ride was over, and S was ushering Pearl down, and leading her around to a little shed in the sideyard.

Amethyst would've liked the shed's contents. There was an array of disorganized paraphernalia, some of which made sense, like a lawnmower and a snow shovel, and some of which didn't, like a rusted washing machine and an anvil and a…

"Puzzle?" Pearl asked, instinctively finding a piece and positioning it to further the image, a savanna scene with an array of wildlife.

S nodded. "Totally dorky, I know, but it helps me unwind after a day's work. It just gets so stressful sometimes."

"I know how that is," Pearl concurred as she added another piece to one of the animals.

S sighed. "I highly doubt it. But thanks." She picked a red can with a yellow nozzle off the floor, leaving an empty space between two other cans exactly like it.

Then she set it down again.

"Listen," she explained. "I live with my kid brother. He'll be home soon and when he gets here, there's gonna be no privacy anywhere, trust me. So if we're gonna shoot the elephant in the room, we might as well do it now."

"I think it's a rhinoceros, actually," Pearl remarked, scrutinizing the jigsaw image.

S reached out and gently guided Pearl's face away from the puzzle so that they made eye contact. "Look, I tried to play it cool, but I think it's pretty obvious that I've kind of wanted to kiss your face off all night. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm inclined to doubt that you would mind it if I did."

Pearl's jaw dropped open and her eyes widened to around five times their usual diameter.

S took two steps backwards. "Whoops, damn if this isn't awkward. Hey, I can still give you the gas and take you back and we'll call it a night and if you're down with it we can hang out as friends and stuff. I just thought, you know, it was worth a shot, and if it didn't work, then—"

Pearl's toes sprung into action the way they had at the light. She leaped briskly across the space between them and landed in S's arms; how S possessed the reflex to catch her, Pearl did not know. It didn't matter.

What mattered was how good she felt two seconds later, when gem lips met human lips, desperately yet tenderly, and the warmth Pearl had felt in her arms on the motorcycle now proliferated throughout every last photon in her holographic form.

S's lips moved beneath hers, not stiff at all even with the metal cuff on her lower lip.

"I don't mind," Pearl declared as S pulled away to breathe.

"Me either," S answered, pulling Pearl back in for another round.

They grew closer, somehow, so close that Pearl felt that, had S been a gem, they would have had to have fused long before now. Lip to lip, chest to chest, dancing without moving a single digit. Pearl felt that heat rise again, growing hotter and hotter, paradoxically, pleasurably painful.

Perhaps the heat had somewhere to go.

Pearl opened her lips wider, felt that human tongue which ought to have been disgusting work its way into her mouth as though it belonged there. So sweet, so rough—

That was when they were bathed in a shower of light, and Pearl wondered for a split second if, somehow, they had really fused, until she heard S's distinct voice cursing.

"Shit, it's Justin," she explained. "We gotta get going. Um… gas can."

Pearl would have forgotten about the gas entirely had S not reminded her. "Oh… right. How much should I reimburse you?"

"It's on the house," S assured her. "But if you really wanna make it up to me, don't lose that number I gave you, all right? We could grab breakfast or something next time I'm in Beach City."

"That sounds lovely," Pearl replied, and she thought to herself that perhaps there was still time for her to learn the finer points of drinking juice.


End file.
